Why This Goat ‘Vandalized’ an Office

Video captured on security cameras show one large, adult goat using its horns to shatter glass doors.

Watch: Goat 'Vandalizes' Local Business, Flees the Scene

PUBLISHED July 18, 2017

A bunch of kids were caught vandalizing a store window—but not the kind of kids you think.

That's because security footage caught a gang of goats—whose young are known as kids—destroying glass office fronts in Louisville, Colorado.

As employees at a local manufacturing company arrived at work, they noticed the glass doors to the office has been busted from the outside. Assuming they were the victims of a break-in, employees called the police, who promptly reviewed security footage.

"For 20 minutes he just sat and banged on that one side until he broke it, and then he left and came back and decided to break the other side too," Greg Cappert, an engineer for the company told local Denver station Fox 31. "I don't know why. That was just to be mean I guess."

Officials guess that the goats came from a nearby farm but, for now, they're still on the loose. The goats escaped capture, leaving behind only a few pellets of poop.

So what would prompt an animal to bang its head against a glass wall for nearly half an hour?

Naturally Curious

"He probably did it for fun!" says Susan Schoenian, a sheep and goat specialist at the University of Maryland.

She explains that goats are naturally curious and independent. Whereas sheep often seem to be content in the space they're given, goats are much more likely to try to make a run for it. Schoenian adds that horns, which grow on both male and female goats, are common tools the animals use to test out their surroundings. They're frequently spotted head-butting anything that piques their interest.

"They're hard horns, combined with their curiosity, gets them into mischief," notes Schoenian.

Pecking Order

The video footage actually shows only one goat breaking the glass, although other animals can be seen in the background, milling around. The lead animal's larger size and position relative to its onlookers suggest that goat was actually an older, dominant member of the group (and so not technically a kid).

Like many animals, goats tend to follow social hierarchies, even more so than some other livestock, Schoenian notes.

"They're not as equal—they're not going to join the fun," she says.

When asked if the goat could have been attacking its own reflection, Schoenian explained it was possible but unlikely. While dogs and cats are sometimes recorded barking or swatting at their reflections, they're natural predators, meaning they can see what's in front of them much more easily. Goats, as a naturally evolved prey, have vision that sees best from their peripherals.